6/2/11 ** Day 6, Book 6 ** Soo Min, who is maybe 4-5 years old, is adopted from Korea by an American family. When she arrives she knows no English and her new parents know only a few words of English. The family cat, and the Korean word Goyangi, become the common threads to tie the new family together. When the cat disappears, she becomes the catalyst for Soo Min's first English word, home.

The illustrations, by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher, are absolutely stunning and perfectly complement the text. The artists use paper collage and acrylic & oil paints to create a brocade-like tapestry composed of both Eastern and Western motifs, as well as Korean words chosen to represent the themes of the story: family, home, mommy, daddy, child, safe, love, and cat (from the title page.)

This is one of the rare books that I've purchased new. I highly recommend it.